Frustrated by too much of the same old same old, and inspired by childhood memories of listening to his dad play the White Album and Harvest, James Riggall decided to make some music of his own. The Broken Broadcast is an alias for that music; fractured, melancholic and blurry.

Soya Milk Sea, The Broken Broadcast’s debut mini-album, recorded in a friend’s basement, has just been released by Pilot Records and documents a burgeoning song-writing talent. By track four, Dead Leaves, Riggall has managed to inject an impressive sense of space into his music.  By track 5, Nurse Your Swollen Limbs, a sparsely strummed guitar, a repeated two-note piano refrain and an occasionally hit snare drum, you get the feeling that Riggall has begun to capture perfectly what he set out to achieve. His voice only adds to the slightly unsettling feel of the music, being at once desolately mournful and sweetly melodic.

By the end of the album, you’re wishing you had a recording studio and a string section on hand – if this album was orchestrated, it would be massive. As it stands, it is a remarkable debut. Imagine a stripped back early Grizzly Bear and you’re well on your way.

Soya Milk Sea is available now here.

The Broken Broadcast MySpace is here.

Way back in the mists of time, when Suitcase Orchestra first crawled, blinking in the light,  from the primordial swamps, chamber pop maestro Andrew Morgan recommended we check out Julie London. Well, we knew all about the delights of ‘Cry Me A River’ and sadly, Julie is no longer with us so we’ve made it our business to find a more than suitable replacement.

Described by someone at Radio 2 as a ‘real old school beauty’, Louise Hull does indeed have more than a hint of days gone by about her with her 1950’s film star looks and her rich, dark voice which recalls the aforementioned Miss London and a whole host of other female jazzers. She looks and sounds as if she should have a cigarette perched delicately in a cigarette holder coiling wisps of smoke around her face as she sings.

But, for all of the jazz imagery and vocals, her music has a more folky feel with picked guitar, some soft strings and a light dusting of xylophone. It’s the sort of thing Jools Holland might well have had on Later had he not lost his way.

Having started out in a four piece a cappella group and a folk duo, Louise started her solo career with an ambitious solo tour of America. Since then she has supported Martha Wainwright and Alessi’s Ark and recorded an album with Roxy Music producer John Anthony. She is currently working on an E.P. which should see daylight soon.

In the meantime, enjoy a slow waltz with someone special to this offering or check out Louise’s MySpace here.

Christopher-and-I -  click to listen

The second of our features on new bands who deserve to be heard sooner rather than later.

The Woodlands are married couple Hannah and Samuel Robertson and they share a hometown of Portland, Oregon with the similarly sublime Horse Feathers. Like Horse Feathers they make a fragile sounding folk-pop sound only with Hannah’s whispered vocals being even more delicate.

Earlier this year, they released their self-titled debut album which they recorded in what they call ‘a homemade studio fort of blankets and pillows’.

The album is a beautifully simplistic and intimate autumnal affair, a theme reflected in their video for Can We Stay, directed by James Wilson. Rather than me waffle on at length about how great they sound, you really ought to just click, stick it on full screen mode and listen.

Can We Stay from The Woodlands on Vimeo.

The album is available through iTunes and eMusic and The Woodlands Myspace site is here.

You Were Into Them First is a series aiming  to give new bands the limelight we feel they deserve. The first of the series focuses on Edinburgh’s Eagleowl.

Named because an eagleowl can kill a woodpigeon (Eagleowl’s Malcolm Benzie used to work in a record shop with Woodpigeon’s Mark Hamilton apparently, though the rivalry in band names is friendly), Eagleowl describe themselves as a lo-fi post-folk ensemble. If you aren’t sure what that means, this may be easier: Eagleowl are the Spacemen 3 of folk. Simple looping guitar riffs played over a woozy drone of fuzzy strings, breathy, sometimes murmured, vocals, all done to hypnotic effect. On the band’s website, they claim to believe in doing things right, rather than doing things fast – this appears to apply to both the quality of their output and the pace of their songs.

Like Spacemen 3, some of the music is gently mesmerising while other songs like This Is Not Your Lucky Day have a pulsing air of menace about them. Their new single, Sleep the Winter, falls into the former category – it’s a whispered lullaby moving at a glacial pace, which draws you slowly into its titular hibernation.

Sleep The Winter follows their debut EP, For The Thoughts You Never Had, which, to give you an idea of the attention to detail that’s going on here, was released as a limited edition CD with screen printed hand folded card sleeve. That’s now sold out in its physical form, but can still be downloaded from the usual sources. It features Motherfucker which is so positively poppy, by Eagleowl standards, that it even has a drum beat. The titles of the other tracks on the E.P. – Sleeptide, Blanket and Blackout – hint at a desire to be smothered and unconscious which is mirrored in the somnambulant nature of the music.

December the 11^th sees them play at the Bowery in Edinburgh to mark the release of Sleep The Winter, followed by  an appearance at the Sick Kids Sunday charity all dayer, at the GRV in Edinburgh on Suday 31^st January alongside an impressive line-up which includes James Yorkston & Adrian Crowley’s tribute to Daniel Johnston.

Sleep The Winter is released by Kilter on December 11^th. Check that out here.

Eagleowl’s Myspace is here.